Reality Surfing

Reality Surfing is a hybrid project that combines elements of artistic research, performance, installation, participatory playground, and is open to any kind of visitor — from humans to insects. In it, the authors of PYL collective create the conditions under which things ‘speak’ to us in their own way, thus activating attention towards non-human worlds. They discover new relations between daily objects through their materiality and presence in one space, which gain an equivalent value as presence of a human body. Scenography of the piece comprises a system which exists and functions according to its own rights. It serves and requires a service; it absorbs and triggers; it’s geometry is meaningless as well as a feeling of destruction.

The project partially applies concepts from the field of current philosophical movements (e.g. New Materialism, Object-Oriented Ontology) to the context of post-dramatic and object theater, but mainly attempts to intuitively discover vitality and fragility in what is considered as everyday and ordinary.

We move objects from one contextual frame to another, revealing their hidden or inconspicuous qualities. Part of this process is rethinking of primary function of technologies, which we perceive as one of the forms of a tool error. For humans, a dysfunction of the thing could mean a factual loss of control over it and the impossibility of its further usage. However, the origins of this concept are consumer-oriented, so we can perceive it only in relation to established socio-cultural codes. Error as such does not exist beyond human reality. Intentional ‘misuse’ of the ‘tool ’may reveal features that are usually overshadowed by its conventional utility. Therefore, within the process of creation of Reality surfing, we assign an important role to accidents, failures, intentional mistakes. We consider them as performative manifestations of objects as well as potential forms of emancipation of non-human world.

Each of us assemble our own small worlds with the available things and knowledge, using random fragments of reality as stones for building the wall against the wind. When the wall falls, we find ourselves in a vapour landscape which unites collapsed pieces into the new creature. Where we can surf from the cardboard box to the dolphin’s fin by accepting the terms and conditions. Where are moments of entropy and freedom, no matter if we are locked up, locked down or just among ourselves and our surroundings.

Reality Surfing invites a spectator to forget about rational logic and surf into a new reality composed in collaboration with sponges, oranges, machines, ghosts and other unexpected species.

CREDITS

devised by PYL: Světlana Silič, Maria Komarova, Anna Romanova, Theresa Schrezenmeir
Music: Theresa Schrezenmeir
Dramaturgical consultations: Cristina Maldonado
Production: Motus, z.s., Alfred ve dvoře, Terén—Pole performativního umění
Special thanks to: Sodja Zupanc-Lotker, Tomáš Procházka, Lukáš Jiřička, Judita Císařová, Andrey Dabrakou, Michal Mitro, CEDIT
Support: hlavní město Praha, Ministerstvo kultury České republiky, statutární město Brno, Státní fond kultury České republiky, MČ Praha 7 / Art District 7, DAMU
The project was created in cooperation between MOTUS – Alfred ve dvoře and Terén - field for performing arts.
Premiere dates: Praha: 7. 10. 2021, Alfred ve dvoře, Brno: 18. 11. 2021, OC Dornych
photos by Martin Špelda, Alfred ve dvoře